Northern Wind, a P&S spinoff

[JoHansen]

Northern wind, part VI
I'll give you, black sensations up and down your spine,
If you're into evil you're a friend of mine,
See my white light flashin' as I split the night,
'cause if good's on the left, then I'm stickin' to the right.

As I awoke from my nightmare I felt something heavy on my back. My whole world was spinning and I couldn’t hear a thing. I lay still, tried to comprehend what just had happened. I tried to turn around, could not move my head without feeling sick. Slowly, bit by bit I came undone from the pieces of the basement door. I looked outside. The mushroom cloud was still there. I crawled back, remembered the shelter. My mum was there, physically. Her mouth open, a scream with no sound. Later I was glad that the bomb temporarily took away my hearing. I looked around, everything was still there; water, canned food, blankets, the radio, a flashlight, and all the other stuff we packed away. I tried to ease my mother’s pain, shook her hard. Hell – I even smacked her face. No reaction. I found my cigarettes and went outside to have a look at the house. It was quiet, I hadn’t realized my hearing was gone, I saw the fires, the smoke, to the south I saw hell on earth. I tried to realize what had just happened, but my mind was numb. I tried to comprehend what had happened to my home but I couldn’t. All the glass in the windows was gone and parts of the paint were bubbly. I went to the north side of the house to see if we still had the oil for the stove. And I fell to my knees, crying.

Askøy County – Kleppestø.
After the trembling had stopped, a short period of hysteria followed. The inhabitants of the shelter went crazy and the janitor had to use force to keep some of the people off the doors. After the initial chaos everybody settled down. But soon the banging on the doors started. They rattled the handles, banged on the doors – faint screams were heard. Some of the insiders tried to get out, but the janitor had good use in the soldiers that where on the inside, and their weapons. The first 24 hours were bad. A communications officer had brought a radio set, but all he could get were static and strange noises. The big quiet came after 36 hours in the shelter. No banging on the doors, no more screams. We thought we knew why.

The worker was feelin ill, hangover he thought. The attack happened much as he had expected but for one thing, he was still alive, why the Soviets hadn’t nuked Bergen directly was a mystery to him. He didn’t know that a SS-17 missile with Bergen’s coordinates punched into the flight computer exploded in its silo at Yedrovo. He remembers the power went down, the LP stopped slowly while he was listening to Aase's Death by Grieg. He remembers seeing the flash, then the shock wave and the fires. Hell on earth to the south, but he stood by the open window, watching.

That’s it for today.

 

[JoHansen]

Nuclear target list of Norway

Here is what could be the list of confirmed nuclear targets in Norway during the exchange. It is what I think the soviets would take out int the first wave.

Military and civilian airports:

Sola (Stavanger), Gardermoen and Fornebu (Oslo), Rygge (Moss), Værnes and Ørlandet (near Trondheim), Bodø, Bardufoss, Andøya. All of them hit wit a 3-600 Kt device.

Military Bases:

Novika Submarine Communications Facility, Ramsund Naval Base, Haakonsvern Naval Base, Klettkoven Early Warning and Communications Station and Kolsås HQ in Oslo.

Civilian targets:

Oslo (What's left of it)
The warheads intended for Bergen, Stavanger and Trondheim exploded in the silo at Yedrovo.
The goverment bunker near Oslo is targeted but survives, (The king and goverment survives in the original P&S thread).


I'm not sure if there will be an update of the story today. I'm deep within the research of EMP and its effects on the electric and comunications grid in Norway.

 

[Uff Da the optimist]

Awesome, keep it going!

 

[JoHansen]

Awesome, keep it going!

Thank You!

 

[Uff Da the optimist]

Hydro-electric

Perhaps a rushed question seeing as you are already researching the effects on power and communications grid.

But would nuking the capitol and major cities also take out the ability to use the hydro-electric power stations around the country? Take the case of Dale, where it's very well hidden away from major cities and transportations hubs by large mountains, would it take long for them to re-establish power supply to Hordaland and Sogn & Fjordane? Wouldn't the civil defense be in charge of these in wartime, and keep them operational?

They can't possibly take out all of them, and by the 1980-s, wasn't norway about 85% supplied by these?

 

[JoHansen]

A good question. The hydroelectric powerstations is mainly located in mountain hall's like the one you mentioned located in Dale. Acording to my sources every powerstation and their controll facilities should be protected against EMP, shielding was faraday cages/solid steel-plate boxes. But the grid is a whole other question, I'm having dificulties findig out wether the shielding and grounding of the transformator is adequate to fend of an EMP from a nuclear explosion hig in the atmosphere. I assume the grid would mostly be intact but the transformer stations could be gone. So I guess it wouldn't help much to have a large production of electric power if you can't use it. But as said, I'll have to look into that some more, it just don't make sense putting all that effort into protecting the powerstations and not the grid.

Most of the powerstations would survive in TTL and half of the people would be gone. There would be plenty of power both for the industy and the surviving population, that is IF the grid is somewhat opperational.

 

[Bernard Woolley]

We've talked about HEMP before. It's not the all destroying threat often presented in the media. It's also pretty easy to protect against.

 

[JoHansen]

HEMP

We've talked about HEMP before. It's not the all destroying threat often presented in the media. It's also pretty easy to protect against.

I'm having a hard time findig a source that contradicts the media made picture. Can you help me there J1N?

 

[Unknown]

Jo, the prime minister of Norway in 1984 was Kare Willoch. Did he survive the exchange?

 

[Archangel]

Keep it up, JoHansen!

 

[Chipperback]

I'm subscribed

 

[MerryPrankster]

Good scenario so far.

 

[Uff Da the optimist]

Kåre Willoch might have survived if he bolted early enough, but does it really matter? The second that country is at war, won't the war effort be led by the military with the goal of stopping the USSR and survival?
Although I would take Kåre Willoch's advice at any time, about anything.

What is truly f***** about this scenario is that if you're a norwegian, living far away enough from the radiation and death that you manage to survive the initial months, you then have the wonderful joy of experiencing rain laced with more radiation showering you for months, and then nuclear winter.

And it'll get better, because if you somehow incredibly enough manage to survive all this, the wild game you could hunt is poisoned and the fish in the sea now glows in the dark.

What are the Home Guard's protocol in this type of situation anyway?
Prepare for repelling SU-troops or just survival in general(marshall population, secure power and food) etc?

 

[Jukra]

And it'll get better, because if you somehow incredibly enough manage to survive all this, the wild game you could hunt is poisoned and the fish in the sea now glows in the dark.

Actually leakage from industrial toxic waste would be far more of a problem, although short lasting one, than radiation on fishing. With much of the European population gone there would be plenty of fish for Norway and even more crucially, a lot for export.

 

[DrakonFin]

Subscribed, I'll follow the thread with interest.

 

[Uff Da the optimist]

What about fuel?

With much of the European population gone there would be plenty of fish for Norway and even more crucially, a lot for export.

That makes sense, but I was under the impression the SU took out all Norwegian oil platforms as well? Is there stockpiled enough fuel to export vast amounts of fish, lumber and other technology(hydro-electric etc) to the UK and what's left of mainland Europe?

 

[Dunois]

Great TL, looks like Norway is in a very strong position for the recovery period.

What is truly f***** about this scenario is that if you're a norwegian, living far away enough from the radiation and death that you manage to survive the initial months, you then have the wonderful joy of experiencing rain laced with more radiation showering you for months, and then nuclear winter.

And it'll get better, because if you somehow incredibly enough manage to survive all this, the wild game you could hunt is poisoned and the fish in the sea now glows in the dark.

Nuclear winter won't happen on the scale portrayed by some, the worldwide climate will be different for a year or two but nuclear winter is unlikely. The theory was disproved during the Gulf War with the oil rig fires.

Radiation won't be a problem either since radiation from a nuclear explosion decays a lot faster than radiatio from a nuclear meltdown. The nucleotides involved are different which accounts for the faster decay.

That makes sense, but I was under the impression the SU took out all Norwegian oil platforms as well? Is there stockpiled enough fuel to export vast amounts of fish, lumber and other technology(hydro-electric etc) to the UK and what's left of mainland Europe?

Not all the oil platforms will have been taken down since there is a rather large amount of them. The Mongstag refinery will be intact as well judging from the target list, so POL supply won't be a problem.

Considering its preparation and the natural assets at its disposal, it looks like Norway is one the country which has been the least damaged by the war so far.

 

[The Uchronian]

Great TL, looks like Norway is in a very strong position for the recovery period.



Nuclear winter won't happen on the scale portrayed by some, the worldwide climate will be different for a year or two but nuclear winter is unlikely. The theory was disproved during the Gulf War with the oil rig fires.

Not quite, I'm afraid. You fail to take into account the fact that these oil rig fires were somewhat sporadic and they couldn't have thrown nearly as high of a density of fallout as nuclear warheads exploding over cities, air bases, silos, etc. over a couple of hours would have, and then there's the number of warheads that exploded. An educated guess on my part is, you'd need something on the order of something like tens of thousands, or maybe even a couple hundred thousand oil fires burning all at once, to come close to the level of coverage that a middle-level nuclear conflict would have, and only about 600 fires occurred in the Gulf War.

That said, Norway does appear to be in a far better position that certain other countries in Europe, for sure....

 

[JoHansen]

Nuclear winter

In the P&S universe it seems to be some kind of "mild" nuclear winter. Spring is late and summer is cold, so I will take that into account as the story unfolds.

Now I'm deep into studying population density and the survival of the powergrid. Seems like more than 70% of the power plants would survive in TTL's relativly conservative use of nuclear warheads on Norwegian targets. But still I've killed about 2 millon of Norways population .

The oilfields in the North sea was in 1984 not built to the extent you'll se today. There were few and easy to take out instalations. I might save Statfjord A, but I guess the soviets wanted to cut any suplies of crued oil that could help NATO. I'm afraid they would have put alot of effort into damaging/destroying the oil infrastucture.

It's bad and glazed in Norway as well, but the survivors won't envy the dead.

 

[JoHansen]

Northern wind, part VII

It's animal
Livin' in a human zoo
Animal
The shit that they toss to you
Feeling like a Christian
Locked in a cage
Thrown to the lions
On the second page

Extract from the book “Royal Norwegian Navy in a new world”, where we can find the interview with the captain of KNM Nordkapp.

…..After investigating the flashes of light seen from the harbour in Bergen and finding out it was someone trying to contact us. I decided that we would moor downtown Bergen, not far from the pub most of the crew visited when we were in town last time. We got in contact with the surprisingly organized local authorities and I was called to a meeting with representatives from the government, the town and the military. After learning the full extent of what damage that had been done to Norway, I asked for orders and put my ship under the command of the joint military and civilian administration of Bergen and surroundings. We had to help in any way we could. …….
………In few words the situation looked bad, very bad. Haakonsvern and surroundings was gone. It had been a ground burst, probably to knock out the dock in the mountain. Flesland airport hadn’t received any warheads, but there had been extensive conventional bombing before the nuclear exchange. The blast from the attack on Haakonsvern had taken care of what was left. The fact that it was a ground burst had saved Bergen. The mountains had deflected the blast wave and later the northern wind had swept the fallout to the south. But the radiation in Bergen was high, and anybody who had a shelter was via radio told to keep inside. There were not many people to be seen. Some of the suburbs were gone and others couldn’t be reached due to radiation. We decided amongst our self to wait another 24 hours before we would take any action. ………
..…… It was a quiet and tense mood on the ship. I summoned the crew in the dining room of the ship and told them everything I had learned. Oslo and most of the east part of Norway gone (pieces of information received via radio suggested more than 5 warheads), Bodø and surroundings had a similar fate, what had happened further north nobody knew. Stavanger gone, Trondheim not hit directly but radiation was severe. King and government supposed to be in “Sentralanlegget” the bunker outside Oslo that could take a 100Kt direct hit, last news that came in before everything stopped suggested they were in the bunker. If they ever came out alive was at best uncertain. I told them about the dangers of radiation to the mostly unprotected population. I told them about the weather that was on our side. I told them about fuel and food stocks. I told them that we might - be able to survive this. I asked them for their cooperation, for their help. Everybody volunteered; the ship and almost full crew would help bring Norway back from the ashes…….
_________
The worker hadn’t slept since the attack. He had a flat with windows, walls a door but no power. The weather was bad but it wasn’t that cold inside. He had food, lots of water, hell even a few bottles of beer. But still he couldn’t get any sleep. The fever had dropped, he wasn’t sick any more. The pain in his gut hurt like hell, no matter what he did it just wouldn’t go away. He prayed to god it wasn’t radiation sickness and decided to go for a walk. The guy on the radio had talked about not leaving your house no matter what. But still he had to get out. Outside the snow fell slow and dreamily to the ground, hiding all the blackness under a blanket of innocent white. He could not see anybody outside, he could not hear anybody. At last quiet he thought. He walked to the east, towards Svartediket (a lake) and Tarlebøveien (a road alongside the lake). He had always enjoyed that walk. Today was no different, until he saw the strange fruit hanging from the naked branches of the birch three. At first he couldn’t comprehend what he saw. Then he saw the uniforms, the hammer and sickle, the rope around the neck. Two dead pilots slowly dangling in the wind. The worker turned around and ran away, stopped, emptied his stomach until he nearly fainted. Tears streamed down his face.
_______
I heard a weak noise and turned my head around. I could see my mother standing there and I understood where the noise came from. She was screaming. Eyes turned skywards and screaming. Pulling her hair, some of it fell to the ground. I got up and started walking, away. Just couldn’t take anymore. I started running, stopped after I reaching the end of the road. I sat down in the snow, looking south. Smoked my cigarettes. I saw the mushroomcloud disperse. I saw the sky turn black.